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Gardening in Shade

Full shade and bright full shade?

17 years ago

Hi.

Im trying to work with my shady areas this autumn. But I find the definitions a bit hard to understand.

I understand full sun and half shade +/- 6 hours sun a day. Then there is full shade... and this is where my problems start.

I have a bed up against a north facing brick garage. The back metre of it never gets any sun, not even in summer. But its still a fairly bright place as its open sky over it.

I know that deep under the canopy of a huge tree it would be full shade... but is the back of my bed that much full shade too? Or would it be more like half shade?

Its always been a tricky bed... maybe because I started as a novice garden and put sunloving plants there :-D

So now I would like to get the right plants in there once and for all.

Thanks in advance.

Hanne in Denmark

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Comments (4)

momamamo
17 years ago
Hanne - Your light shade situation is commonly known as part shade. Aim for plants that handle a range of light. In the brightest spots, plant things that grow in part-shade to sun; in the darkest parts, go for part-shade to shade. Your brick garage probably holds heat so you may have an interesting little microclimate there to experiment in. But that's part of the fun!

I googled "plants part-shade" and came up with the below as an example of what's out there. Best of luck! Maureen

Here is a link that might be useful: www.diggingdog.com
solsort1_dk
Original Author
17 years ago
Hi Maureen.

Thanks a lot :-)

Your way of explaining it was really helpfull, now I get it completely.

And thanks for the link... I already found a lot of stuff that I have growing around the garden, that I can move to my 'new' shade-halfshade-sun bed.
Its really a fun bed to work with, as the very front part of it has baking full sun and is very dry cuz of the slabs of our patio.

Youre right, experimenting is one of the best parts of the fun.

Thanks again, and take care,
Hanne
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mary_pnw_7b
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